Building Mental Toughness for Running. Ditch the Negative Mindset.

Build Mental Toughness for Running using these Steps

I’m tired.

Boston Marathon training has reached its peak and the taper has begun but my body is feeling exhausted from all of the miles and the mental part of training. It’s Sunday morning, the day after 8 more inches of snow on April 1st. One more long wintry run. 16 miles to bring me steps closer to the starting line in Hopkinton on Patriot’s Day. My alarm goes off and I hit snooze several times not wanting to leave the warm hibernation in my bed. Finally I pull myself out of bed. Layer up for another cold run. Shovel in some breakfast and feed my always hungry children. They cling to my arms as I strap on my hydration pack and tell them I must head out the door. Finally blowing kisses as I head out the door, the crunch of snow under my feet. I press start on my Garmin and begin to run. I know from the start this will be a challenging run. I feel the 20 miles from last weekends Eastern States 20 Miler where my legs felt light and swift. My shoulders and back feel tight from swimming hard laps and laps with a pull buoy. I am greeted with a small hill within two minutes of the run and I can already hear the negative voice in my head.

Not a great way to start a run. I try to quiet the voice but it is sticking with me and the miles are feeling long. I know I have got to get this run done. 10 miles to be run at 9 min/mile pace with the last 10 at marathon pace 8:10-8:20 (or faster). I cringe at the thought of this knowing that on my out and back run I will encounter rolling hills and the last long (almost a mile) training hill as I creep towards home. I know this run is important because it is on this run that more than the physical I am training my mental toughness. I need to use this run to build strategies and find mantras and music in my head to fight the negativity that most certainly will visit me during 26.2 miles of running on marathon Monday.

Let’s be real. Every time you go for a run it isn’t going to be the best run you have ever had. Sometimes your body and mind are fatigued from a challenging training load. It can be the everyday stress of life that gets in the way. Or maybe you didn’t get enough sleep . . . the list goes on. When you aren’t feeling up to your best running self and almost every step feels hard negativity can creep in and take over your run. If you allow the negative mindset to creep in it is very easy to let it win. This can happen on a training day and even worse on race day.

Don’t let the negative mindset win out! One big part of training for a race is developing your mental strength so that you can stay positive or so that you can talk yourself out of the negativity. As a part of your training you can gather “tools” to help yourself avoid negativity or to teach yourself to use a negative attitude to fight back when things aren’t going your way.

Strategies for Escaping a Negative Mindset

Practice visualization before you go for a run. Take 10 minutes to run through the race course in your head. Get to know the race course so that you can talk yourself through the hills and challenging spots. Imagine yourself running with strong running form and a relaxed body.

Choose some mantras prior to your training run or race that you can repeat to yourself when things get hard. Here are some of my favorite mantras as of late,

“Give yourself permission to work hard. It’s ok for it to hurt.”

“One step at a time. Just keep moving forward.”

“I can conquer _________ hill so I know I can beat this one.”

“You must finish it. No matter what.”

“You will feel stronger and proud when you finish this.”

“You WANT your goal. Now go for it!”

Music can make the miles easier. Sometimes it is not a mantra but a song that pumps me up that you can think about. Running through the lyrics in my head can take your mind off of the struggle.

Focus on something other than how heavy your legs feel or how slow your pace feels. Instead, focus on your breathing or the sound of each foot strike as this can be meditative.

Set mini-goals for yourself during the run–For example you can allow yourself to have a slower pace for a half mile and then challenge yourself to pick it up, or choose landmarks as points to run to with a faster pace.

Flip your watch over. Sometimes when you ditch looking at your splits it takes the pressure off and your body is better able to naturally hit the pace. Only check your splits when your watch beeps at each mile marker.

Keep on running!

So how did my 16 miler end up? I finished it. I fought for each step and battled the negative mindset as I ran. But in the end even though this wasn’t my fastest or best run I call this run a win. I won out against my negativity. I didn’t quit but instead fought to keep my paces on track. I reminded myself of the strength within my body from all of the miles of training. I check this run off in the win category for mental toughness and will carry this with me to the Boston Marathon.

This was probably one of the most important runs of my whole training cycle.

Building Mental Toughness with every step.

For more on building mental toughness here are some articles you may want to check out. I love how in her article, “Working on Mental Toughness,” Angela from Happy Fit Mama talks about using visualization to help get out of a negative mindset as this has always been a great strategy for me. And have you ever used the strategy of “Fishing,” Carly from A Fine Fit Day talks about this technique in her post, “5 Mental Running Tips to Help You Through a Tough Run.” Fishing is when you focus on a runner ahead of you and you imagine reeling them in! This is a fun strategy to take your mind off of anything negative that might be happening during your race. And if you are into Podcasts, Women’s Running has 3 suggestions for podcasts that you should listen to to help you work on mental strength, “These Are The 3 Best Podcasts For Building Mental Strength,” from my friend Allie who blogs at Vita Train 4 Life.

How do you build mental toughness?

20 responses

The struggle is REAL and you captured it so perfectly. Thank you so much for including my link as mental toughness is something I’m working on with every single workout I do. It’s exhausting I’m thinking of YOU and already cheering you on in Boston. Remember how tough you are my friend!!! Find that place of hard and just laugh at it!Allie recently posted…High 5 Friday!

As Allie said, the struggle is real, and it is real for EVERYONE. Regardless of your pace, your distance, your years running. The struggle is so real. When the going gets tough, I insert confidence builders into my runs to show myself that yes, I can do this. I repeat mantras like “I am Capable” and other phrases that are rhythmic and chant-able and in so doing, basically create a moving meditation, like I described in that post.
But really, we all need those hard slogs. Those are the teaching moments!

Mindset is EVERYTHING. I like to adopt a “me yesterday” vs. “me now” attitude about challenges. I try to shush “me yesterday” and say she’s trying to pretend she’s today’s me. Bizarre, but it gets me through the tough stuff!

Fantastic post. I’m also just entering taper and I. Am. Toast. But I know those last few long runs have been incredibly important and I’m grateful I haven’t been running in snow all week (until this weekend, of course). I use mantras to push through the tough times, too.Rachel recently posted…Five Beverages to Keep You Hydrated and Happy

Building mental toughness is one of the hardest parts of running, especially when you’re training! Thank you so much for including my post, too. 🙂 Even after bad training runs, I would tell myself that it all counted and a bad run just meant that a confidence-inspiring good one was right around the corner.

Music makes it so much better. A friend of mine mentioned the other day that they would watch tv shows on their phone while on the treadmill to pass the time. One day they decided to try listening to music instead and it was a game changer. They ran for 20 minutes and it only seemed like five minutes! Music can trick your body into getting into it and moving with the beat and before you know it, you’re workout is done!

Great advice! Running is definitely more mental than physical. The visualization technique helps wonders. I used to spend 24 hours before my long run just thinking about how I am going to get it done and that helped me build mental toughness drastically. Thanks for the reminder!

I always run with music (unless I’m with a friend), and the lyrics really are a great distraction. I also catch myself saying “sustain” if I’m having a difficult time….it means (for me) to just keep going, not necessarily fast, nor should I slow down, but to just sustain my current “rhythm” until the negative moment(s) pass. Good luck at Boston!!Kimberly Hatting recently posted…Half Full or Half Empty?

I admire you ladies that get out there and train for marathons- it is a whole other game! Mental toughness is right! I know that it is really mind over matter but I need to remind myself too!Mary Beth Jackson recently posted…Five things I borrowed out of my running bag………

A Vision Board is a journey map, with images or photos that represent your ideal reality. It’s a simple dream board that helps you utilize the power of visualization to achieve all the things you want in your life.

Hello! I’m Sandra!

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